Jesea Lee: Band Publicity, PR Misconceptions & Hiring a Publicist

Joining us this week out of Cleveland, Ohio is music publicist Jesea Lee. Jesea is a publicist with High Road Publicity, a team of highly passionate PR professionals with a combined 30+ years experience.

High Road Publicity have developed an uncanny system for developing and launching an avalanche of emerging bands that are signing to some prestigious labels including Revival Recordings, Artery Recordings, Rise Records, and Equal Vision.

In this interview, Jesea breaks down some misconceptions bands have around publicity, how to make your band publicity-ready, and what to look for when hiring a publicist. Enjoy!

Highlights:

We hear what led Jesea to pursue a career as a music publicist

Jesea tells us how an internship led him to becoming a publicist full time

We hear about the misconceptions bands have around publicity

Jesea tells us how he manages expectations around a band’s publicity campaign

“One of the biggest misconceptions bands have is that press is instantaneous” – Jesea Lee

“Press is not a sprint, it’s a marathon – you have to build up to bigger features.” – Jesea Lee

“One of the biggest benefits of press is covering all the spots where your audience are going to be” – Jesea Lee

Jesea tells us what bands should know before starting a PR campaign

We hear that if you are hiring a publicist, you need to have something new to promote!

Jesea tells us about the role social media plays in a publicity campaign

Jesea tells us what artists should be asking and looking for when choosing a publicist to work with

“Ask publicists for previous examples of their work” – Jesea Lee

Jesea tells us what bands should do to make themselves as publicity-ready as possible

We learn that Jesea wrote a bio for Finch and tried to pick up a bartender with that fact!